In September 2003, about a year after Gujarat was ravaged by communal riots under Modi’s watch, the chief minister was seeking approval from the business community. Thus was born the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Summit’, the investment jamboree that Modi has made a biennial political statement since. Back then, though, it was a tentative idea, rising from the ashes of a polarised state and a leader seeking validation.

Some leaders of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the country’s main industry grouping, had criticised Modi for the riots and told him that it would be hard for the state to pull in investments. He needed to prove them wrong,Companies were called to announce large investments in the state. While everyone expected the Ruias and Reliance to make large announcements, Adani surprised everyone by announcing a 15,000 crore investment.

Any reference—good or bad—to Gautam Adani’s sprawling business empire is rarely unaccompanied by his alleged proximity to Narendra Modi, the man who could be prime minister in 2014.There are parallels between the two. Both have their roots in Gujarat. Both have bloomed in their respective spheres in the past decade. Both have created a deep imprint at the state level and are restless for a national footprint. That is the ‘now’. Read more of this post

The Indira Gandhi administration threw open the doors of PFY (polyester filament yarn) manufacturing to the private sector in early 1980. Dhirubhai Ambani applied for a license to set up PFY manufacturing plant. In spite of stiff competition from Tatas, Birlas and 43 others, Dhirubhai was awarded the licence.To help him build the PFY plant, Dhirubhai pulled his eldest son Mukesh out of Stanford where he was studying for his MBA and dropped the untried, untested twenty-four year-old chemical engineer from Bombay University into the deep end. Read more of this post

April 30, 1982. Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambanibecame famous this afternoon. However he had no inkling of this when he woke up that morning. The only emotion he perhaps felt that hot summer morning, as the mercury crossed the 33 C mark, was wrath. For the past six weeks, a syndicate of stockbrokers had been hammering his company’s shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange,and he didn’t like it.

April 30 was a Friday, the day he could vent his anger, take his revenge. On the BSE, alternate Fridays were settlement days when all transactions which had taken place the previous fortnight were cleared.Sellers delivered shares to buyers, buyers accepted delivery, or either party asked for the transaction to be postponed to the next clearance day after paying badla or compensation for the delay. This day was one of the settlement Fridays. It would go down in the BSE’s history as a day of total chaos.

The stage for this drama was set a few days earlier, on March 18, when a selling hysteria shocked the BSE. In twenty-five minutes of panic, starting at 1.35. p.m. the price of blue-chips like Century and Tisco crashed by ten per cent. They fell like dominoes on the back of Ambani’s Reliance Textile Industries which fell from Rs 131 to Rs 121 as 350,000 of its shares hit the market. Read more of this post

A G Krishnamurthy ,the author of ‘Dhirubhaism’,is the founder chairman and managing director of Mudra Communications. Dhirubhaism is an attempt by the author share his insights into Dhirubhai Ambani’s management style culled over several interactions with him during their long association.The book lists 15 Dhirubhaisms. The 15 Dhirubhiasms put together bring out the work philosophy of Dhirubhai Ambani and give us a glimpse into the remarkable thinking process and habits of one of India’s most successful entrepreneurs.

The book is a slim 96 page volume and an easy read.The isms may not be unique to Dhirubhaiji .Many people display some of the traits , in their working styles as well, but Dhirubhai was one of those rare people who demonstrated all of them, all the time.To really benefit from the book,the really important thing is not so much to read the book as to practice the Dhirubhaisms on a daily basis till they become second nature.I’ve been trying to do so for a while.I can’t say the isms have become second nature but I am now at the stage where every time I slip up I know almost immediately that I’ve slipped up.